credibility: he had lost his license to practice law for altering court records; he had made false accusations against the Clintons in the past; and he had suffered a brain hemorrhage with some resultant losses of memory. Opponents continued to make the carpetbagging issue a focal point throughout the race and during debates. Talk radio hammered on this, with New York-based Sean Hannity issuing a daily mantra, "Name me three things Hillary Clinton has ever done for the people of New York!" Clinton's supporters pointed out that the state was receptive to national leaders, such as Robert F. Kennedy who was elected to the Senate in 1964 despite similar accusations. In the end, according to exit polls conducted in the race, a majority of the voters dismissed the carpetbagging issue as unimportant. During the campaign, Independent Counsel Robert Ray filed his final reports regarding the long-running Whitewater, "Travelgate", and "Filegate" investigations of the White House, each of which included specific investigations of Hillary Clinton actions. The reports exonerated her on the files matter, said there was insufficient evidence regarding her role in Whitewater, and said that she had made factually false statements regarding the Travel Office firings but there was insufficient evidence to prosecute her. Although The New York Times editorialized that the release of the reports seemed possibly timed to coincide with the Senate election, in practice the findings were not seen as likely to sway many voters' opinions. A September 13, 2000 debate between Lazio and Clinton proved important. Lazio was on the warpath against soft money and the amounts of it coming from the Democratic National Committee into Clinton's campaign, and challenged Clinton to agree to ban soft money from both campaigns. He left his podium and waved his proposed paper agreement in Clinton's face; many debate viewers thought he had invaded her personal space and as a result Clinton's support among women voters solidified. Late in the campaign Lazio criticised Clinton for accepting campaign donations from various Arab groups in the wake of the USS Cole bombing. The Lazio campaign orchestrated a wave of telephone calls to voters using this attack. This issue caused former New York Mayor Ed Koch to take out ads telling Lazio to "stop with the sleaze already," and did not change the dynamic of the race. Some of Lazio's campaign strategists would later say that the Cole-based attack had backfired and